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    Thao Phuong Tran

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    The document provides a summary of a presentation by Aurent van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, on making global labor fair. Van Heerden describes issues like child labor and human rights violations occurring in supply chains. He argues that management loopholes and lack of regulation allow these problems. The document discusses how ethics is important for business and how governments and companies share responsibility to address international problems in supply chains through common standards and protecting human rights.

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    Thao Phuong Tran

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    The document provides a summary of a presentation by Aurent van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, on making global labor fair. Van Heerden describes issues like child labor and human rights violations occurring in supply chains. He argues that management loopholes and lack of regulation allow these problems. The document discusses how ethics is important for business and how governments and companies share responsibility to address international problems in supply chains through common standards and protecting human rights.

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    The document provides a summary of a presentation by Aurent van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, on making global labor fair. Van Heerden describes issues like child labor and human rights violations occurring in supply chains. He argues that management loopholes and lack of regulation allow these problems. The document discusses how ethics is important for business and how governments and companies share responsibility to address international problems in supply chains through common standards and protecting human rights.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    28 views2 pages

    Thao Phuong Tran

    Uploaded by

    Thao Tran
    The document provides a summary of a presentation by Aurent van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, on making global labor fair. Van Heerden describes issues like child labor and human rights violations occurring in supply chains. He argues that management loopholes and lack of regulation allow these problems. The document discusses how ethics is important for business and how governments and companies share responsibility to address international problems in supply chains through common standards and protecting human rights.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Thao Phuong Tran

    Dr. Blankenship
    IVIU Corp Soc Resp & Sustainability
    February 16, 2023

    Reflection Paper: Making Global Labor Fair

    Aurent van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), an organization
    established to defend workers' rights globally, presents and examines the international labor
    issue in this reflection and attempts to be as neutral as possible. There is also my opinion,
    which is based on the incisive arguments he used throughout his presentation. The author
    begins by describing the realities of workers in several nations, like India, China, etc., about
    issues of child abuse and deprivation of fundamental human rights. He then listed some of the
    causes behind the aforementioned incidents. The conclusion and final words of wisdom for
    this. From there, readers can assume the role of a company confronting such issues and
    develop tailored answers on their own. Even if you can't handle any negative feedback, you
    must face it and cope with it. The speaker provided a comprehensive empirical examination of
    current trends and experiences in the areas of work, employment, and unemployment. Yet
    scholars should also aim to comment on, criticize, and deny the contributions of the problem
    with pertinent reasoning.

    The speaker begins by telling the narrative of a mobile phone mined by groups of armed child
    slaves in Eastern Congo and finally perfected in a facility in Shinjin, China. Hundreds more
    workers committed suicide at the same workplace, with some dying after working a 36-hour
    shift. Another chocolate story in Ivory Coast involves the trafficking of child slaves from
    conflict zones to work on coffee plantations. Or the "Blood Diamond" of Uzbekistan, where
    the government closed schools, loaded children into buses, took them to cotton fields, and
    kept them there for three weeks to pick cotton. It's kid labor that has been structured... What
    am I hearing and experiencing? Could things possibly be any worse? 

    Aurent emphasized the management loopholes, which is where the majority of the difficulties
    mentioned above arise in the global supply chain, and I absolutely agree with him. Several of
    these regulatory loopholes are exploited by inept states. Some of them are no longer states,
    but failed organizations, usually when governments believe that having no rules or laws is the
    best way to attract investment and boost trade. They will go against morality to make large
    profits. In this section, I'd want us to look at "ethics" in business and how it creates profits for
    the company without violating any ethics. Normally, ethics is viewed as an expensive
    behavior that leads a company to lose money. Companies must remember that any profit
    made by deception, fraud, or theft frequently comes at the price of their reputation, brand
    image, and shareholders. As a result, leaders and managers must work hard to maintain their
    integrity. Some project managers consider that ethics is too costly for the project, causing
    them to lose money. It is erroneous in my opinion. Earning a profit is not inherently immoral;
    the issue is how it is done. People trust ethical businesses more, and this trust increases the
    likelihood that the company will remain prosperous and thrive for many years. According to
    surveys, customers are prepared to pay a premium for a firm that is ethical. Ethics is
    becoming an increasingly crucial component of new-generation organizations' operations,
    particularly in the age of the Internet, powerful social networks, and smart tools, where
    opinions and impressions may spread swiftly. Is it necessary to go against morals in order to
    attain our goals?

    The second topic I'd want to bring up for debate is the global supply chain when it is
    supranational. It's "too huge to capture," in my opinion. Consider Copenhagen, when the
    government absolutely failed to do the right thing in the face of an international challenge, or
    the G20 summit, which lagged behind on earlier obligations. How far can governments go in
    terms of providing answers and remedies to international problems? And the short answer is
    that they can't do anything since they're just national. Because local voters have limited
    interests, they cannot place those issues ahead of the wider global good. The speaker added
    another mechanism, an instrument, to enhance them. A White House task group was
    organized, and it debated the duties of the participants in the global supply chain for nearly
    three years. Companies did not consider it their obligation at the time. They do not own the
    facilities, do not employ the personnel, and are not accountable. Finally, regardless of
    ownership or control, we must all agree on a single set of standards and norms of conduct that
    will be applied throughout our global supply chain. I think this is a brilliant idea since they
    use the power of contracts, or private power, to distribute public goods. Thus, whether they
    like it or not, they must nonetheless follow common law in order to preserve their own
    interests.

    "Human Rights" is the last topic that makes me want to sit down and talk about it. Both the
    speaker and I despise the notion that governments all around the globe are failing to preserve
    these rights. I also understand that for many individuals, it appears to be an onerous duty. Yet,
    in the end, when we begin to restore dignity to them, human rights become a pretty easy
    thing. We can all work together, take responsibility, and go for what the government has
    thrown open. If we don't, we're sacrificing fundamental humanity, which I know isn't what we
    want and doesn't have to be. 

    The initial half of his TED talk piqued my interest since it discussed child labor difficulties
    beginning in the early phases of multinational firms' supply chains. The remainder of the
    discussion focused on how we might address these issues, as all parties involved, including
    governments and international businesses, claim they are not to blame. He demonstrates how
    conditions at this end of the supply chain force customers to make ethical sacrifices in order
    to purchase the brands they desire. When this TED lecture described the degree of supply
    chain corruption, it really impacted me. His wider perspective is that we have a global
    economy without global governance, which he calls endemic... that is, they are so pervasive
    that they have become a systematic component of the global economy. It is true that many
    individuals sacrifice their principles in order to buy the brands they want. I believe that
    consumers may easily ignore and detach themselves from the realities of industrial working
    conditions. Nike is a prime example of a brand for which people are willing to forego their
    ideals.

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